Tonight: Properties Of The Bermudian Dialect
At 6:30pm today [June 23] there will be a presentation at the North Street Citadel, Salvation Army [across from Dellwood] by Britanni Fubler. The presentation will focus on the “lexical, phonological, and phonetic properties of the Bermudian dialect.”
Ms Fubler said, “Our dialect is unique! We should be proud of our dialect and it should be included as a valuable and valid aspect of our culture.”
She completed two papers on the Bermudian dialect at The University of Toronto during her final year, and graduated this May with an Honors Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics.
The first paper is entitled Acoustic Analysis of Bermudian English, and the second paper is entitled Lexical and Phonological Changes in Bermudian English, which used over 700 responses from Bermudians, and found that some words that are Bermudian are becoming extinct, but new words are coming to replace them
Ms Fubler said she selected the topic as the most extensive report on the Bermudian Dialect was conducted in 1933 by Harry Ayers. IDEA has an account of the dialect as well but only one speaker is analyzed.
“There has not been a detailed acoustic report conducted on the dialect – my professors have strongly suggested that I present my findings both locally and overseas as it is very valuable to linguists,” said Ms Fubler.
“Last summer I interviewed 6 Bermudians and was able to then analyze their speech acoustically. The results showed that we are very, very unique and we can contribute greatly to the linguistic community. Why? Many of our dialect features are not seen in other places in the world and many of the features we possess are features that were once present in other dialects but have now been lost.”
“The presentation this evening is going to discuss these two papers in more detail and talk about some results that I didn’t include in the reports. It will answer questions about eduction and dialect, race and dialect, gender and dialect; why do some people sound differently when talking with certain friends? Are certain Bermudian words becoming extinct? Are they changing their meanings?”
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Um mum this sahns fessinating!
I toll u byes we was great speakers.
From d east to d wes we byes now can hir it from d graduate who has degreee in linguini. Um headed to d horsepital
You may want to correct the typo in the flyer…
“Come and find out how our dialect is changing and what role you play ‘IN’ its survival.” (Not “is” its survival)
And please explain why we want to propagate this “language” that so many uneducated people speak? It is not proper English – American or British. The accent is fine – many of us have an accent but the language is awful. Ebonics is not a language. I don’t know where it came from but I wish it would go back there!
UmmUmm jus’ sayin.
GET OVER YOURSELF! Obweeous it vahz goid enuf fer de Uniwersity of Trono!!!!
Wow. Not only closed-minded, but racist.
Most regions of the world have their own words for things. It does not make it awful. Even northern and southern english people. I doubt her linguistics presentation is on poor grammar.Ddialect is about the words we use, and how we use them, as i understand it.
There are “uneducated” people that have poor grammar everywhere. But even the educated people in the same geoographical space, may sound different to an educated person from some other geographical space. UmmUmm, you definitely need to attend. If you can’t, it would serve you well to maybe read up on the historical significance of things like Ebonics, or Patois, or Creole.
That being said, Ms Fubler, or Bernews, will there be another presentation? or a DVD? I’m unable to attend tonight. But would still like to hear this important piece of cultural work.
You may want to chill and worry less about how one sounds and more about the good or bad they do…Far to often we have been screwed by an articulate thief…
You Suck!
I will be attending this discussion tonight as I think it will be interesting to understand more about the various words and phrases spoken in my country and what meanings have been attached to these words.
As far as educated and uneducated people go – this is a matter that affects even Great Britain the birthplace of the English language as we know it. Having a dialect borne out of cultural experiences here is a bonus.
What really is of issue in my mind is not the existence of a dialect, but the inability of people to recognize and understand the importance of being fluent in the ‘Cash’ Language ie. proper and grammatically correct English, the official language of the Country, Businesses and all Official matters.
What is really sad is seeing mispelled English words emblazoned on the Bermuda Government vehicles.
@UUD: I deemus read dah hole ding you rote, bfour I got vex. De way we talk, belongs to us. an um proudorit.Yah we can speak good if we hattoo, but our dialeck is ours. I duneeen have a rock to vooze at you if error I saw you. You need to getowerit!
Our dialect, varies, from place to place. St David’s islanders have a unique way of expressing themselves, If you came from Devonshire, or “backatown” there are sayings and words that are peculiar to that region. the word “deemus” originated from the “inkibader” (Devon Flatts) meaning “Didn’t even as much as” The word “vooze” is a backatown word meaning to throw something with vengeance. Please get over thinking that things that are unique to Bermuda are not worth preserving or even discussing.
It would really be great if someone could record this event as I would not be able to attend this tonight. I really would skip class for this but I need to be there as I only have two days left of summer class. If she could make this presentation again on another day would be great.
I’m sure this presentation will be very interesting. I’m sorry though that we are only finding out about it the day of the presentation when people may have other plans. Giving late notice is something I find to be commonplace and I imagine impacts the number of people attending forums such as this.
I LOVE BERNEWS !!!!
RELAX AND OPEN YOUR MINDS AND HEARTS – LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO BE SO SERIOUS !!!!
A BERMUDIAN @ A DISTANCE, BERMUDIAN AT HEART !!!! FOREVER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This was a well attended presentation (a full house!) and made me even more proud to be Bermudian! I was so stunned to see how much of a unique dialect we have and it is NOT uneducated! She made that very clear and provided evidence to back it up.
Ms. Smith, she did mention that it was just published in the press but the information was given a few days ago so it is unfortunate that it was published on the same day but she had an excellent turnout. I highly recommend that you attend the next one.
She plans to do another one in August but for anyone that requires more information you can email her at bfubler@gmail.com
It was an excellent presentation! GO TO THE NEXT ONE!
Lived in Bermuda from age 12 to 21, went to Dellwood, still feel like Bermuda is home. No fett! I love the Bermudian dialect, it has nothing to do with educated or uneducated – only with the amazing mix of nationalities that originally made up the peoples of Bermuda. Was involved with the UmmUmm shows in the early 70′s – anyone remember those? Wish I could be there to go the next presentation. Bermudians be proud of your dialects!!